Yes, Nicolas Cage owns the house now. I'm trying to figure out how to get an appointment with him so I can photograph the interior of the building. That idea about the newspaper report being written by a disgruntled neighbor has been around for a long time. It seems to have originated in the 1920s-1940s with Mrs. Miriam Duggan DeBuys, wife of Dr. Lawrence Richard DeBuys. Dr. DeBuys was a direct descendant of Delphine's first daughter, Borja Lopez y Angulo, who was married to Placide Forstall. Naturally the family wanted to rehabilitate the reputation of Madame Lalaurie, so they spread this alternative story, placing the blame for "spreading rumors" on Barthelemy Montreuil, a relative who also lived next door. According to this story, Montreuil had been cheated out of his inheritance by Delphine. I'm still hearing this from some present-day descendants of that line of the family. Montreuil was indeed Delphine's first cousin (his mother, Manette Macarty, was Delphine's father's sister), but he didn't live next door, or for that matter, anywhere near Delphine. And he does seem to have been the one who originally reported her cruel treatment of her slaves to the authorities a few years before the fire. When Barthelemy's father died, his mother (Delphine's aunt) became executor of the estate, which, according to Louisiana Civil Law, was equally divided between all the Montreuil children. Barthelemy got the same share as the others. I've looked at many pages of succession documents, and Delphine never had anything to do with the settlement of the estate. The story of the fire appeared in the Bee, the Courier, and the Louisiana Advertiser, and later got into the national press. Montreuil was not a reporter for any of these newspapers, although he might have contributed to the story since he was one of the men who went into the house to fight the fire and save the slaves. The articles were written by the editors of the papers; two of them were Creoles and one was an American. To me, the most compelling evidence is the deposition that Judge Canonge made before the Justice of the Peace and was reprinted in the Bee. Some people even now have argued that Canonge himself might have had a grudge against Delphine, and this could be true, but one hopes that he was of an incorruptible character. In addition, there are three other contemporary reports of the incident that I've found in the Historic New Orleans Collection and at the Tulane Library, which confirm that the thing really happened. Finally, there's a letter from Delphine's son, written from Paris in 1842. As all of you have probably figured out by now, I'm working on a book. I'd love to hear your version of the story. I want to know what's floating around out there. Carolyn Morrow Long (author of A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau) > [Original Message] > From: Cat <ambicat@charter.net> > To: <laorlean@rootsweb.com> > Date: 04/07/2008 3:56:28 PM > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] the "Haunted House" > > Last I heard, Nicholas Cage now owns it. > > I had heard that the original article that appeared in the paper > about "the incident" was written by a reporter who was a neighbor of > the Lalauries...and apparently they had a feud going on with him so > it was "embellished". Who knows, but makes for wondering exactly how > accurate even things reported in the paper can be. > > > At 12:32 PM 4/7/2008, you wrote: > >It's 1140 Royal, uptown riverside corner of Governor Nicholls--three > >stories, gray, grim-looking. > > Cat Donnow > http://www.ambiancestudio.com > mailto:ambicat@charter.net > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.8/1363 - Release Date: 04/07/2008 8:56 AM

Carolyn, Ages ago, I read a book of stories/folk tales about Louisiana which had something about this in it. Think the book was called "Gumbo Ya-Ya". It was a really old book but had tons of great short stories about New Orleans and Louisiana. I loved it. Think I got it at my library. Jan S - Orlando, FL -------Original Message------- From: Carolyn Long Date: 4/7/2008 6:49:50 PM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] the "Haunted House" Yes, Nicolas Cage owns the house now. I'm trying to figure out how to get an appointment with him so I can photograph the interior of the building. That idea about the newspaper report being written by a disgruntled neighbor has been around for a long time. It seems to have originated in the 1920s-1940s with Mrs. Miriam Duggan DeBuys, wife of Dr. Lawrence Richard DeBuys. Dr. DeBuys was a direct descendant of Delphine's first daughter, Borja Lopez y Angulo, who was married to Placide Forstall. Naturally the family wanted to rehabilitate the reputation of Madame Lalaurie, so they spread this alternative story, placing the blame for "spreading rumors" on Barthelemy Montreuil, a relative who also lived next door. According to this story, Montreuil had been cheated out of his inheritance by Delphine. I'm still hearing this from some present-day descendants of that line of the family. Montreuil was indeed Delphine's first cousin (his mother, Manette Macarty, was Delphine's father's sister), but he didn't live next door, or for that matter, anywhere near Delphine. And he does seem to have been the one who originally reported her cruel treatment of her slaves to the authorities a few years before the fire. When Barthelemy's father died, his mother (Delphine's aunt) became executor of the estate, which, according to Louisiana Civil Law, was equally divided between all the Montreuil children. Barthelemy got the same share as the others. I've looked at many pages of succession documents, and Delphine never had anything to do with the settlement of the estate. The story of the fire appeared in the Bee, the Courier, and the Louisiana Advertiser, and later got into the national press. Montreuil was not a reporter for any of these newspapers, although he might have contributed to the story since he was one of the men who went into the house to fight the fire and save the slaves. The articles were written by the editors of the papers; two of them were Creoles and one was an American. To me, the most compelling evidence is the deposition that Judge Canonge made before the Justice of the Peace and was reprinted in the Bee. Some people even now have argued that Canonge himself might have had a grudge against Delphine, and this could be true, but one hopes that he was of an incorruptible character. In addition, there are three other contemporary reports of the incident that I've found in the Historic New Orleans Collection and at the Tulane Library, which confirm that the thing really happened. Finally, there's a letter from Delphine's son, written from Paris in 1842. As all of you have probably figured out by now, I'm working on a book. I'd love to hear your version of the story. I want to know what's floating around out there. Carolyn Morrow Long (author of A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau) > [Original Message] > From: Cat <ambicat@charter.net> > To: <laorlean@rootsweb.com> > Date: 04/07/2008 3:56:28 PM > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] the "Haunted House" > > Last I heard, Nicholas Cage now owns it. > > I had heard that the original article that appeared in the paper > about "the incident" was written by a reporter who was a neighbor of > the Lalauries...and apparently they had a feud going on with him so > it was "embellished". Who knows, but makes for wondering exactly how > accurate even things reported in the paper can be. > > > At 12:32 PM 4/7/2008, you wrote: > >It's 1140 Royal, uptown riverside corner of Governor Nicholls--three > >stories, gray, grim-looking. > > Cat Donnow > http://www.ambiancestudio.com > mailto:ambicat@charter.net > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.8/1363 - Release Date: 04/07/2008 8:56 AM ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message